First Outpatient Bronchoscopy Tomorrow

-

Ugho. Knowing me as you do, blog family, you know I had to spend today worrying about this.

FYI: What is a bronchoscopy? A bronchosopy or “bronch” is when they use conscious sedation (you are awake but all high, but still requires to participate in the procedure actively), they numb your mouth and throat really well (hopefully), and they use a flexible scope and camera to look all around the inside of your lungs, and sometimes they take samples, which they can test for early signs of infection or rejection before they present themselves as illness (when they’re just a’brewin’).

How Often Do Tx Patients Get a Bronch? At my center, at few days after surgery, at 2 weeks, at a month, three months, 6 months, and a year or whenever your surgeon wants. For me, the schedule is messed up because they bronched me during 2 of my 3 thoracotomies, while I was “under.” So, my last bronch was on my 30th birthday, Aug. 11th.  YAY! jk. So, I got to skip my 1 month bronch which would have been Aug. 27th because by then the med team had finally figured out that I needed a long “healing” time after my FIVE FRIGGIN SURGERIES (even though they call 2 of them procedures). 

Tonight, I have to go to bed early because . . .  I’m sleepy. I leave you with this.

Who says cats don’t like to go for walks?Becky Leashed

Comments

  1. Bob.9/26/10, 11:17 PM

    That is so cute. is that a cat harness or dog harness?

    ReplyDelete
  2. J9/26/10, 11:33 PM

    My sister is a follower of your blog, and when I called and told her I was the back-up for a set of lungs, she sent me your link saying, I think this is the primary! (you were) Since then, I've been following your progress in amazement. I finally had my transplant september 8; tomorrow is my first outpatient post-transplant clinic appointment! I know our paths won't cross tomorrow, but I hope everything goes smoothly for you during the bronch! I sent your sister an email while you were still in the ICU and she held down the blog, I don't know if my well-wishes were passed on to you. Thanks for being a good source of inspiration and motivation! Please email me if you would like, I'd love to hear from you! j.c.whelan@gmail.com
    -Julie

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous9/27/10, 8:17 AM

    Coughing during a bronch would be bad so to make sure you don't, take a large dose of laxitives beforhand. Then you will be afraid to cough.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Beth Peters9/27/10, 11:04 PM

    @Bob, It is technically a dog harness. There were cat harnesses but they looked flimsy and I wanted a nice padded one.

    @P, I did Cough but only when told to and I did not... you know. That's a good tip though. HA!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks for commenting! Your comment will be posted ! (probably)

Popular posts from this blog

Guest Blog by CysticLady: CF and Relationships Part II

-
Image
Let me thank you for the nice comments on my first guest blog on Cystic Gal.  I am also grateful to be able to have a forum to share these experiences. As such, I thought I'd write a follow-up.  There is another side to this story.  I will attempt to tell my version of it without using too many cliche's, but it may be hard because love is the most written and talked about topic in the history of the world. Love is a wonderful part of life.  I think I can go so far as to say, it is the reason for life.  It is indeed a real shame to go through such lengths as a lung transplant to continue living, to then deny yourself the chance for love.  The same way that I weighed the risks vs. rewards of a lung transplant, is the way that I have to weigh the risks vs. rewards of love. I have said before that I'd do everything again, the whole year of dying, the surgery, the recovery, for just one of those days after transplant that I didn't have to think about breathing.  Not
Read More!

One Night Only, One Night Only

-
Hello CGers!!! It's me. Boldly, bravely, I let my Dad bring me my laptop for tonight. I have been enjoying a computer hiadus, but wanted a little time to write to you y'all and doodle on internet. Who knew I could go a whole month without my laptop? WHO KNEW!? Well, I've been busy. And tomorrrow is already my transplantiversary!! ( one month). My surgery started on July 27th and ended on July 28th! I know there is a lot to explain about all that has happened but I'm not gonna handle all that tonight. Just recent news and such. So, it looks like I hope to get out of the hospital next week if we can finally figure out everything with my lymphatic system. I started eating this week, and long and short, it agravated my lymphatic system a bit, again. (Not at all like before, but still, there was fluid retention and other random details.). So, 4 more day of IV nutrition and clear liquids for me, and then we'll try, I don't know, eating again. The IV nutrition keeps m
Read More!